2014

Daoism: Religion, History and Society, No. 6 (2014), 219246

Modern Daoist Eschatology:

Spirit-Writing and Elite Soteriology
in Late Imperial China*
Vincent Goossaert

Abstract
This article explores a corpus of 18th and 19th-century scriptures revealed
by spirit-writing and published by members of the elite. These scriptures
propose a soteriology where the threat of an apocalyptic turning of the
kalpa plays an important role, and enjoins on elites a duty to usher
in a moral reform that alone can avert the advent of the apocalypse.
It first shows the close relationship between spirit-written revelations,
the Wenchang cult and eschatology in the earliest such texts, produced
during the Song dynasty, and then shows that this relationship continued,
and even intensified during the Qing. After discussing several bodies
of revelations linked to Wenchang, Lzu and other cults, it explores to
what extent this discourse can really be categorized as eschatological. It

Vincent Goossaert is a historian, Professor at EPHE, deputy director of the GSRL

(Societies-Religions-Secularisms Institute), and Adjunct Professor at the Department
of Cultural and Religious Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He
was Guest Professor at Geneva University, and the Renmin University in Beijing.
He works on the social history of modern Chinese religion, and has focused on
Daoism, on religious specialists as professionals and social roles, on the politics of
religion, and on the production of moral norms. He has directed an international
project on Temples, Urban Society, and Taoists (grants from CCKF, Taiwan,
and ANR, France), and is now co-directing the international project on Chinese
Religions in France (grants from CCKF, Taiwan, and ANR, France). Among his
books are The Taoists of Peking, 18001949: A Social History of Urban Clerics;
The Religious Question in Modern China (with David A. Palmer); and Quanzhen
Daoists in Chinese Society and Culture, 15002010 (co-edited with Xun Liu).
* This article is dedicated to the memory of two great scholars who have left us

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Vincent Goossaert

argues that this discourse should be understood as a transformation of,

and possibly a counter-discourse to earlier and contemporary apocalyptic
messianism that maintains the apocalyptic vision but routinizes the
messiah and thus de-politicizes its vision of social change.
Keywords: eschatology, Daoism, Qing period, spirit-writing, Wenchang

Daoist (and to a lesser extent Buddhist) revealed scriptures

throughout the ages very frequently sound eschatological themes.1
The very need for a revelation is indeed justified by the fact that
humanity is in a state of advanced decline and needs a new vehicle
of salvation (the revelation) in order to redeem itself (or a selected
group of elect) and avoid the impending apocalypse. Revelations
have been occurring with little pause over more than two thousand
years of Daoist history; there is thus a possibility of writing a very
longue dur history of Daoist eschatology, with all its ebbs and flows.
Some periods were characterized by heightened eschatological
thinking, while at other times it was part of the discourse without
being prominent. The end of the world, as it were, keeps changing
but is always on the horizon.
much too early, and whose work and insights have inspired it: Monica Esposito
(19622011) and Judith M. Boltz (19472013). I would also like to thank
Christian Wittern for providing access to the beta version of the electronic
Daozang jiyao, and David Ownby, Philip Clart, Paul R. Katz, Mori Yuria
and Shiga Ichiko for very fruitful comments on a first draft.
Successive versions of this paper were presented at the conferences: Changing
Fate in Religious Daoism (Erlangen, 1314 June 2013); Wars, Disasters and
Popular Religious Movements in Modern East Asia
(Gakushuin, Tokyo, 22 June 2013); and Les eschatologies
dans lhistoire religieuse chinoise (Paris, 10 April 2014, co-organized by David
Ownby and myself). I am extremely grateful to Terry Kleeman and Takeuchi
Fusaji for their respective invitations and for providing me with excellent
occasions to engage with other scholars on the ideas presented here, and to Philip
Clart for incisive critiques during the Paris workshop. The paper presented in
Tokyo was published as Kindai Dky no shmatsuron: Min-Shinki ni okeru
fran to shitaifus ni okeru shmatsuron no bokk
, trans. Umekawa Sumiyo , in
Sens, saigai to kindai higashi Ajia no minsh shky
, ed. Takeuchi Fusaji (Tokyo: Yshisha, 2014), 3862.
1
By revealed text, I mean a text given by gods to humans, and which the latter
have to disseminate without altering its contents.

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221

This article focuses on a corpus of late imperial (18th and 19thcentury) scriptures revealed by spirit-writing (fuji , fuluan ,
jiangbi ) and published by members of the elite. 2 These
scriptures propose a soteriology where the threat of an apocalyptic
turning of the kalpa plays an important role. To what extent this
discourse can really be categorized as eschatological is debated, and
I will deal with this important issue in my conclusion. I argue that
it should be understood as a transformation of earlier and
contemporary apocalyptic messianism, and should thus be included
in the larger field of eschatological discourses. The better-known
Daoist eschatological texts, which have received sustained scholarly
attentionincluding the Nqing guil (Demon Code of
Nqing, 4th century) and the Dongyuan shenzhou jing
(Scripture of Divine Incantations of the Abyssal Caverns, 5th
century)date from the medieval period.3 While the texts that I focus
on here are much later productions, both continuities with and
innovations from the medieval scriptures are crucial to the
understanding of these texts. I thus propose that in this endeavor (as
in many other aspects of Daoist history) one should work
simultaneously in (at least) two time scales: one that encompasses the
whole of Daoist history and highlights very long-term continuities,
and the other that looks at the specificities of the period under study.
In this case, three time scales are relevant: the very longue dure; the
period from the 12th century onward where a specific technique
(spirit-writing) and discourse emerge and develop; and the early and
mid-Qing where they take on particular relevance as an elite form of
discourse in contrast to other types of eschatologies.
Before moving on to the historical narrative, some definitions
are in order. While there are many different types of eschatologies
(discourses on the end of the world), the dominant mode in all the
2

I am not discussing other late imperial eschatological texts (including the

baojuan ) here.
3
Christine Mollier, Une apocalypse taoste du V sicle: Le livre des incantations
divines des grottes abyssales (Paris: IHEC, 1990); Stephen R. Bokenkamp, Time
after Time: Taoist Apocalyptic History and the Founding of the Tang Dynasty,
Asia Major, 3rd Series, 7 (1994): 5988; Anna K. Seidel, Taoist Messianism,
Numen 31 (1994): 161174. See also Erik Zrcher, Prince Moonlight
Messianism and Eschatology in Early Medieval Chinese Buddhism, Toung Pao
68 (1982): 175.

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texts discussed here is apocalyptic; that is, all or most humans will
perish because of disasters (fires, floods, wars, epidemics) decided
by the gods and meted out by demons. This apocalypse is conceived
as the end of a kalpa (or cosmic cycle, jie ), and thus not as an
absolute and definitive end of time, as another kalpa will follow.
Some humans, the elect (often called zhongmin in medieval
texts, but not in our late imperial scriptures where there is no
specific term), may avoid the apocalypse and cross over the
turning of the kalpa (dujie ) or be saved from the turning of
the kalpa (jiujie ). In some cases, the elect will be gathered by
a savior or messiah (hence the term messianism) such as
Maitreya or Li Hong ; the messiah is often described as
creating a kingdom of peace and plenty for the elect, safe from the
apocalypse (hence the term millenarianism, since in Christian
theology this kingdom is said to last for a thousand years). As we
will see, the apocalyptic eschatology is a permanent fixture of
Daoist doctrinal productions, but the messianic and millenarian
elements can be (and often have been in late imperial and modern
times) removed from it or at least radically reworked, as the savior
of the early messianic tradition, who is expected to come down on
earth as an incarnate ruler, becomes (at least in the elite
eschatological discourse) a god who stays in Heaven but talks to
humans through routinized revelation (spirit-writing).
While this typology may look neat, actual texts of course
sometimes resist classification into convenient categories. One
particularly salient case of such resistance is the multifarious uses
of the most crucial keyword, jie. In direct continuity with earlier
uses of the term, but with new added meanings, the discourse on jie
in late imperial revealed scriptures (and other texts as well) is very
diverse and complex. For the sake of the analysis, it can be
classified under the following types:
(1) jie (or jieshu , jieyun ) as individual disaster (even an
illness), usually as punishment for a sinlinking in late imperial
contexts (this is markedly different from medieval texts) the
concept of kalpa with a functioning moral universe, where
retribution is often immediate;
(2) jie as a particular condition in which humanity is embroiled,
notably collective hardships or disasters;

Modern Daoist Eschatology

223

(3) jie (or mojie , dajie ) as the end of this world (to be
followed by a new kalpa).

Thus, the term covers a large continuum ranging from individual to

collective, and from specific disasters (in which some may die) to
an all-encompassing apocalypse in which all humanity (bar the
elect) will perish. The discourse on saving (humans) from the jie
is thus addressing different issues simultaneously: how to teach
individuals to improve their fate through good actions, and how to
save the maximum number of humans from the impending
apocalypse. This tension/oscillation between individual and
collective fate is indeed a key to understanding the dynamics of
Daoist doctrinal production concerning eschatology.

I. Eschatology and the Early Spirit-Written Scriptures

Many if not most fundamental Chinese religious texts (including
those in the canons of the Three Teachings) are revelations. By
beginning our narrative with the emergence of documented spiritwriting practice4 during the 12th century as a specific technique for
producing revelations, we open a chapter in the middle of a long
history where other techniques (dream, hallucinatory trance
sometimes induced by drugs) had already long been in use. To what
extent the revelatory technique informs the contents of the
revelation (by informing ways of writing, quoting, arguing, and
addressing the audience, etc.) is an open question, a question made
all the more elusive by the fact that many revealed texts do not
inform us about how exactly they were revealed. To give but one
example germane to the 12th-century rise of new revelations, the
Taishang ganying pian (Tract on Action and Response,
by the Lord on High) that quickly became the most revered of all
morality books (printed in larger numbers than the Bible,
complained late Qing missionaries) was revealed by the Lord on
Highbut how, we do not know. One characteristic of spirit4

On the emergence of fuji, see Judith Magee Boltz, On the Legacy of Zigu and
a Manual on Spirit-writing in Her Name, in The People and the Dao: New
Studies in Chinese Religions in Honour of Daniel L. Overmyer, ed. Philip Clart
and Paul Crowe (Sankt Augustin: Monumenta Serica, 2009), 349388.

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written revelations is that they very often say clearly that they are
the product of fuji and not another revelatory technique.
The earliest well-documented stage in the history of the
production of spirit-written scriptures takes places in Sichuan
beginning in the late 12 th century. A network of devotees of
Imperial Lord Wenchang began at this point to produce
various texts, including hagiographies of the god (notably Zitong
dijun huashu [Book of Transformations of the Sovereign
Lord of Zitong], DZ 170), where Wenchang relates his successive
lives and promotions in the Heavenly bureaucracy, when he
gradually accumulated the merits and virtues that allowed him to
finally climb to his very high-ranking position. Wenchang also
revealed scriptures, notably two that quickly became extremely
widespread and influential: Dadong xianjing (Immortal
Scripture of the Great Cavern, revealed in 1168), and Gaoshang
Yuhuang benxing jijing (Combined Scripture of
the Founding Acts of the Jade Emperor on High, or Yuhuang jing,
revealed around 1220, DZ 10). The first is a new version of an
early and well-known scripture, Dadong jing, which was the central
piece of the Shangqing revelations (late 4th century). The
second is an arguably even more important text, as it quickly
became the core scripture (benjing ) of the Jade Emperor, the
head of the Heavenly bureaucracy, and is thus massively used in
modern and contemporary Daoist liturgy. The Yuhuang jing was
apparently produced in a context of bloody wars between the Jin
and the Song, and it discusses in detail the salvation (through both
preaching and direct granting of divine grace) of devotees caught in
situations of disasters depicted as the apocalypse (mojie). To these
devotees, the Jade Emperor makes a promise to reestablish cosmic
order, morality, and peace.
The groups that produced these texts have been studied by
Terry Kleeman and more recently Hsieh Tsung-hui.5 These scholars
5

Terry F. Kleeman, A Gods Own Tale: The Book of Transformations of

Wenchang, the Divine Lord of Zitong (Albany: State University of New York
Press, 1994); The Expansion of the Wen-chang Cult, in Religion and Society
in Tang and Sung China, ed. Patricia Buckley Ebrey and Peter N. Gregory
(Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1993), 4573; Hsieh Tsung-hui ,
Yuhuang benxing jijing chushi de beijing yu yinyuan yanjiu
, Daoism: History, Religion and Society 1 (2009): 155199.

Modern Daoist Eschatology

225

have shown that such groups are characterized by three elements

that would later become constant features of late imperial, modern,
and contemporary spirit-writing groups. The first element is the
affiliation of adepts to the god producing the revelations as
disciples (dizi ), within an altar or shrine (tan , the term
naming both the physical site where spirit-writing is practiced and
the community of the adepts engaging in the practice). Disciples
receive from the god an ordination name, and thus are inscribed in
heavenly registers. In the context of late Song Sichuan, these altars
seem to be typically linked to large temples and the Daoist clergy,
but they comprise mostly members of the local elites, both scholars
and officials. The main medium of the earliest revelations from
Wenchang, Liu Ansheng , was a scholar without an official
position, but he counted in his circle officials who wrote prefaces
for and transmitted the newly revealed texts. The second element is
the representation of the revealing god as both a full-fledged
member of the Heavenly bureaucracy, and a personal salvational
god playing a unique role in the salvation of humanity and caring
individually for each of his devotees.
The third element is a strong eschatological inspiration. As
mentioned above, in the Chinese context many revelations are by
nature eschatological. The production of spirit-written revelations
from the 12th century onwards both carries on this ancient tradition
and renews it to a significant extent. The eschatological elements
are present throughout the corpus of texts revealed by Wenchang:
one of his invocations (baohao , shenghao ) calls him Jiujie
Dacibei Gengsheng Yongming Tianzun (the
Heavenly Worthy of Great Compassion, Who Gives New Life,
Extends Fates, and Saves from the Kalpa).6 The most articulate text
in this regard is Yuanshi tianzun shuo Zitong dijun benyuan jing
(Scripture on the Original Vow of the
Sovereign Lord of Zitong, Expounded by the Heavenly Worthy of
Primordial Beginning, DZ 29).7 This scripture was revealed after
6

This baohao is found in Taishang wuji zongzhen Wenchang dadong xianjing

(DZ 5), and in Qinghe neizhuan (DZ 169).
7
This text is included in the Daozang jiyao with modifications and a
new title that flags its eschatological nature: Yuanshi xiaojie Zitong benyuan
zhenjing .

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226

1194,8 and builds on earlier texts such as the Huashu. It explains

how the Jade Emperor, having examined the registers of humanitys
good and bad deeds and realized the extent of accumulated sins,
has decided to usher in the end of the world and sent demons to
visit disasters on humans and take them away. Implored by the
gods, Yuanshi tianzun entrusts Wenchang with the task of saving as
many humans as possible through moral reform instructions given
by spirit-writing:9
I entrust him [Wenchang] to engage in spirit-writing, to enlighten and
convert humans, and to manifest himself throughout the world. Thus,
even though the end of the kalpa cannot be called off yet, if one hopes
to dispel it, then it should be thanks to this god [Wenchang]. I will
now summon him for your benefit, and charge him with saving
humanity on the brink of the end of the kalpa, so that the human race
is not entirely annihilated.

This very important text is to my knowledge the earliest one to

equate spirit-writing, the salvation of humanity, and moralityan
equation that would prove extraordinarily productive during the
following centuries.

II. From Song to Qing

Ever since the 12 th century, spirit-writing groups producing
scriptures have been continuously active and increasingly numerous.
While these groups grew ever more diverse, they mostly maintained
the three elements defined above, including eschatology. A number
of works (liturgies, self-cultivation treatises, poetry, hagiography,
scriptures) produced by such groups between the 13th and 15th
centuries are included in the Daozang. One remarkable example is

See Terry Kleemans entry in Kristofer Schipper and Franciscus Verellen, eds.,
The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang (Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 2004), 2:1207.
9
Yuanshi tianzun shuo Zitong dijun benyuan jing, 2b. See also the preface to the Huashu:
(6b).

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the corpus of spirit-written texts produced between the late Yuan

and early Ming around the Xu Brothers cult (Xu Zhizheng
and Xu Zhie ), near Fuzhou , Fujian province.10 This cult
produced among other texts one short scripture, where a highranking Daoist deity reveals he has sent the Xu brothers to Earth
to teach morality and save humanity on the brink of collapse under
the weight of its own sins.11
Wenchang was closely associated with the appearance of the
theme of saving humanity from impending apocalypse through
spirit-written morality books, but other gods soon jumped in and
claimed to play the same role. Arguably the most influential of
these gods was Zhenwu , aka Xuantian shangdi , who,
soon after the Wenchang revelations, began to produce very
significant numbers of revelations himself. Some of these revelations
played up the apocalyptic theme. This is notably the case of a
spirit-written tract dated 1302, in clear continuity with the
Yuhuang jing, entitled Wudang shan Xuantian shangdi chuixun
wen (Instructions Revealed by Supreme
Emperor of Dark Heavens from Wudang Mountains).12 This text
repeatedly evokes the final cataclysm, full of hordes of murderous
demons that will usher in the end of this world (mojie); it calls on
10

Schipper and Verellen, eds., The Taoist Canon, 2:12101216; Edward L. Davis,
Arms and the Tao, 1: Hero Cult and Empire in Traditional China, in Sdai no
shakai to shky (Tokyo: Kyko shoin, 1985), 156; Arms
and the Dao, 2 : The Xu Brothers in Tea Country, in Daoist Identity: History,
Lineage, and Ritual, ed. Livia Kohn and Harold D. Roth (Honolulu: University
of Hawaii Press, 2002), 149164.
11
Lingbao tianzun shuo Hongen lingji zhenjun miaojing
(DZ 317). Note also another eschatological scripture in the Daozang,
undated but likely Yuan or early Ming: Taishang Jinhua tianzun jiujie huming
miaojing (DZ 1196).
12
Wudang shan Xuantian shangdi chuixun wen, Ming edition (date illegible), in
Zangwai daoshu (Chengdu: Bashu shushe, 19921994), 22:416418.
This text would be later renamed Xuantian shangdi jinke yul .
See Vincent Goossaert, Livres de morale rvls par les dieux, dits, traduits,
prsents et annots (Paris: Belles-Lettres, 2012), 5367; Wang Chien-chuan
, Zhenwu xinyang zai jinshi Zhongguo de chuanbo
, Minsu yanjiu 3 (2010): 90117, esp. 106110. This text amplifies
eschatological themes already present in a revelation by Zhenwu dated 1184,
see Taishang shuo Xuantian dasheng zhenwu benzhuan shenzhou miaojing
(DZ 775).

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Vincent Goossaert

humans to follow Zhenwu and his moral teachings so as to be

spared:13
I make a precise record of all good and bad actions, and I measure
exactly the sins and the blessings of everyone; when the sins are minor,
I spare the life of half [the family] but when they are heavy I
exterminate the whole family. The virtuous will be allowed to continue
seeing the light of day, but the sinners will never see the advent of the
great peace. Those who trust in me will survive the apocalypse, and
the others will lose life and soul.

The state of the documentation does not yet allow us to follow

closely the evolution of scriptural production through the course of
the Ming period, but it would seem that after maybe two centuries
(early and mid-Ming) of less intense production, a new phase began
around the early 17th century when spirit-writing groups multiplied
and their scriptures became ever more numerous and elaborate.
From this period on, not only do we have isolated scriptures, but
also comprehensive corpuses with detailed records about the groups
that produced and circulated them.
During this period, Wenchang continued to be a major deity in
spirit-writing cults and a source of important doctrinal
developments. One major text that came to epitomize Wenchangs
revelations concerning his mission to avoid or mitigate the end of
the world is the Wendi jiujie baojing (or Jiujie
baozhang , Precious Scripture by the Civil Emperor, on
Saving Humans from the Kalpa),14 also included in the Daozang
jiyao under the alternative title of Yuanhuang dadao zhenjun jiujie
baojing (Precious Scripture by the True Lord
of the Great Way of Original Splendor, on Saving Humans from the

13

Wudang shan Xuantian shangdi chuixun wen, 1b.

Collected in Zengding Jingxin lu (1749, 1831 edition), 50a59a,
reprinted in Sandong shiyi (Hefei: Huangshan shushe, 2005), 5:714718;
and in Chongkan Daozang jiyao (1906 edition, reprinted by
Chengdu: Bashu shushe, 1995), 9:439441.

14

Modern Daoist Eschatology

229

Kalpa). The origin of the text is unclear; it is already mentioned in

Kangxi-period sources,15 and may thus date to the mid-17th century,
likely more or less contemporary with the other major Wenchang
scripture, the Wenchang dijun yinzhi wen (Text on
Hidden Retributions by the Wenchang Sovereign Lord) which it
quotes liberally.16 By the 18th century, the text was widely circulated:
it was included in a number of popular anthologies of morality
books, including the Jingxin lu (Records on Reverence and Faith,
first edition in 1749).
The Jiujie baojing has a prologue warning humans of the
impending end of the world, and explaining Wenchangs efforts, on
a mission ordered by Tiandi (a common title for the Jade
Emperor in late imperial scriptures), to save as many humans as
possible from the apocalypse. Wenchang explains that he will save
humans by rectifying their hearts and having them recite the
Taishang ganying pian every day. This is followed by six short
sections (zhang ) that focus on individual morality and
retribution, covering the same ground as other morality books, and
providing edifying anecdotes illustrating the working of retribution.
The final section reverts to the eschatological theme and to the
issue of collective fate. Here is how Wenchang describes his role in
the prologue:17
I feel sorry for [humans faced with] the upcoming turning of the
kalpa; [this is caused by] humans sinning without any limit. I am now
dispatching three million great demons of the ten unforgivable sins,
three million apsaras and divine kings, one billion six million divine

15

Wenchang ci Ding Shouxian shengwei ji , in Chen Xi

(Kangxi period), Yanshan caotang ji , ji , 3.11a12a, Siku
weishoushu jikan (Beijing: Beijing chubanshe, 2000), 8.17:532;
Jingshan huibian xu , in Yao Wenran (16211678), Yao
Duanke gong wenji , 13.26a27a, Siku weishoushu jikan, 7.18:361.
16
On the Yinzhi wen and its dating, see Goossaert, Livres de morale rvls par
les dieux, 1524; Sakai Tadao , Zho Chgoku zenshu no kenky
(Tokyo: Kokusho kankkai, 1999), 1:509544; Kleeman, A
Gods Own Tale, 77, 282; and The Tract on the Hidden Administration, in
Religions of China in Practice, ed. Donald S. Lopez Jr. (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1996), 7071.
17
Yuanhuang dadao zhenjun jiujie baojing, 1b.

Vincent Goossaert

230

soldiers and generals, all under the orders of the Thunder Gods of the
five directions, to take sinners away. There will be storms, rains,
flooding, fires, and epidemics to kill the sinners and complete the
turning of the kalpa. The punishment is imminent: how pitiful. I now
want to save living beings, and take upon myself to reveal the
Heavenly decision [to kill all the sinners].

As a whole, the Jiujie jing shares many themes with earlier

Wenchang texts, notably the Benyuan jing, but grants an even more
important role to Wenchang since it is he who now sends demonic
soldiers to kill sinners en masse. Another new feature is the close
connection with morality books (the Taishang ganying pian must
be recited daily by devotees who adhere to the scripture so as to
save themselves) and the idea of a universal penal code (tiantiao
18
) that underpins the meting out of individual punishments and
collective disasters.

III. Eschatological Themes in 18th-Century Scriptural

Productions
We do not know anything about the people who produced the
Wendi jiujie baojing. By contrast, other contemporary scriptural
productions are remarkably well documented as to their social,
organizational, and intellectual contexts. The 18th century was
marked by a strong movement of canonizationby which I mean
here two related processes: the systematic collection of revealed
texts emanating from savior deities in comprehensive collections, as
well as the inclusion of these deities in state official sacrifices. This
movement is important to our purpose because it legitimized and
solidified the place of eschatology in Qing Daoist doctrine. I am
devoting a separate article to this double process of canonization,
18

I plan to devote a separate article to the theme of Heavenly codes in the history
of Daoist scriptures, ritual, and morality.

Modern Daoist Eschatology

231

and discussing in more details the shrines, people, and texts

mentioned below; here I will only deal with eschatological themes.
One important spirit-writing group was created in Suzhou
during the early years of the Qing by members of the most
prominent gentry families there, including the Pengs . One of its
patriarchs, Peng Dingqiu (16451719), whose name comes
up in numerous morality books and revealed scriptures as editor,
preface author, or outright recipient of the revelation, was among
the leaders of private spirit-writing altars (devoted to various gods
such as Zhenwu, Doumu and Wenchang) who merged during
the 1660s into one large altar named Yu tan , devoted to the
Jade Emperor.19 This altar continuously produced revelations over
some decades, until they were compiled in 1714 in one large
collection, titled Yuquan (Jade Expositions, 5 juan, collected in
Daozang jiyao). This is not a scripture strictly speaking, but a series
of rather short texts, mostly dealing with cosmology and selfcultivation. Yet it is significant because it seems to have influenced
directly contemporary and slightly later groups such as those
discussed below.
Although eschatology is not a dominant theme in the Yuquan,
it is part of the worldview of the Suzhou elites that produced it.
The various gods pronouncements insist that the self-cultivation
methods they teach serve adepts in overcoming the kalpa
disasters (including both individual retribution and collective
disasters):
Dont you know that cultivating is the tool to cross over the kalpa? (1.63a)

All ye disciples, if you really can honor our spirit-writing shrine, you
must distance yourself from the vulgar. Then your mind will return to
the Great Dao, your body will reunite with nature and your family
will obtain a new fate when the kalpa ends. (1.94b)

19

The textual productions within the Peng family are the topic of a PhD
dissertation by Daniel Burton-Rose, Princeton University.

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232

This [self-cultivation] is the only way to stop disasters and dispel the
apocalypse. (2.53b)

Self-cultivating and practicing allows you to subdue demons and be

saved from the apocalypse. (5.8a)

The gods descending at the Yu tan themselves express a vow to

save humans from the kalpa (1.33a, 1.99a). In one instance, joining
those at the Yu tan is presented as the one vehicle available to
avoid being caught in the apocalypse:
As for the huddled masses who have not yet joined our shrine and
learned our instructions, how could they avoid falling into the
calamities of the end of the kalpa? (4.31b)

And the choice (becoming a member or not) is between becoming a

demon and ascending to Heaven:
You are still hesitant and indecisive [about joining our group]: are you
sure you are ready to become ghosts when the end comes, and not
happy at the prospect of ascending to Heaven? (3.56ab)

This kind of worldview, as we will see, was quite typical of Qingperiod spirit-writing groups.
A new stage in the history of scriptural production was the
emergence during the early Qing of innovative groups devoted to
the cult of Patriarch L L Dongbin , hao Chunyang
, a probably legendary saint whose cult is attested as early as
the 11th century. One particular group systematized and amplified
the corpus of texts revealed by L.20 It formed in Wuchang
(modern Wuhan, Hubei province), first at the residence of a local

20

Many spirit-written revelations by Patriarch L are attested as early as the Song,

and by the early Qing spirit-writing altars devoted to him were very numerous.

Modern Daoist Eschatology

233

scholar, Song Shinan , then in a temple that the group

founded around 1702, the Hansan gong .21 Thanks to this
temple, the group institutionalized itself and became permanent; a
later adept, Liu Qiao (other ming: Tishu , an official who
rose to the rank of Prefect before being dismissed in 1749)
compiled all the texts attributed to Patriarch L and considered
authentic, including an important number revealed at the Hansan
gong. The compilation was published in 1743 and titled Lzu
quanshu (Complete Works of Patriarch L).22 Texts revealed
at various altars during the Kangxi reign, and notably at the Hansan
gong between 1700 and 1740 were in large part scriptures (jing )
longer and doctrinally more complex than the earlier revelations. The
group around Song Shinan and Liu Qiao thus significantly altered
the contents of the Patriarchs teachings and his image.
Eschatological teachings abound throughout the newly revealed
texts included in the Lzu quanshu. Take for instance this opening
passage from the Wupin jing (Scripture in Five Chapters,
apparently revealed in Wuchang in 1679):23
In the fall of the year jiwei (1679?), the Heavenly emperor became
furious [with the sins of humanity] and ordered the gods in charge of
monitoring humans transgressions to go over the records of peoples
sins and, according to the Heavenly codes, to determine the precise
date for the apocalypse. Those who were listed as the future victims of
the apocalypse were innumerable.

21

Lai Chi-tim , Qingdai sizhong Lzu quanshu yu Lzu fuji daotan de

guanxi , Zhongguo wenzhe yanjiu
jikan 42 (2013): 183230; Li Ka Chun , Lzu
quanshu sanshier juan ben yu Jiangxia Hansan gong
, Daojiao wenhua yanjiu zhongxin tongxun 26
(2012): 14. Li Ka Chun wrote a PhD dissertation on the Lzu quanshu (Hong
Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012) which I have not seen. See
also Yin Zhihua , Lzu quanshu de bianzuan he zengji
, Zongjiaoxue yanjiu 1 (2012): 1621.
22
Liu Qiao, comp., Lzu quanshu (1744 edition, reprinted by Shanghai: Qianqing
tang, 1917).
23
Wupin jing, in Lzu quanshu, 12.2a.

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Vincent Goossaert

In another scripture, the Sanpin jing (full title: Qingwei sanpin

zhidao jixuan cantong miaodian dasheng dujie zhenjing
[True Scripture of Qingwei to Cross the
Kalpa, through the Great Vehicle of the Marvelous Records of the
Unity (of the Teachings), Very Subtle, and Reaching the Dao, in
Three Chapters]; note the eschatological element in the title), revealed
at the Hansan gong in 1740, Patriarch L is very clearly designated
as the one deity in charge of presiding over the disasters (zhuchi
jiehui ), postponing the end of the kalpa (wanhui jieyun
), and expanding his compassion to save humans from the
apocalypse (guangtui jiujie zhi ren ).
The Lzu quanshu rapidly proved extremely influential; during
the following decades, it was modified, supplemented, and reprinted
several times by other spirit-writing groups in other regions,
showing that traveling elites spread these texts rapidly. A 1774
enlarged edition of the Lzu quanshu edited by Shao Zhilin
(17481810) included more new scriptures.24 One of them, revealed
in Hangzhou , carries an explicitly eschatological title:
Guanghui xiuxin baoming chaojie jing (Scripture
to Cross the Kalpa and Protect Ones Life, through Vast Wisdom
and Self-Cultivation). Lzu is presented in this scripture as the
savior designated by the whole pantheon to save humans from their
kalpa predicamenthere again, the jie-kalpa are both individual
destinies and collective apocalypse.
Another one of the groups that appropriated the Patriarch L
corpus to reshape and expand it further formed around 1790 in the
capital around high-ranking officials and a Buddhist monk named
Mingxin . The group was led by Jiang Yupu (zi
Yuanting , 17551819, whose career culminated as head of
several ministries between 1806 and 1814). Their spirit-writing
altar, Jueyuan tan , was active during the last years of the
18th and the first decade of the 19th century.25 It first published a
new version of the Lzu quanshu, then embarked on a much more
24

Shao Zhilin, comp., Lzu quanshu (1774), reprinted in Zhonghua xu Daozang

(Taipei: Xinwenfeng, 1999), vol. 20. Lai Chi-tim, Qingdai sizhong
Lzu quanshu yu Lzu fuji daotan de guanxi provides a very convenient list of
the scriptures added to the 1774 edition when compared to the 1744 (216217).
25
On Jiang Yupu and the Daozang jiyao, see notably Monica Esposito, The

Modern Daoist Eschatology

235

ambitious project, achieved in 1806 with the publication of the

Daozang jiyao. This collection includes over three hundred texts,
two thirds of which come from the Ming Daoist Canon, and about
one hundred texts that were produced (mostly spirit-written) during
the 17 th and 18 th centuries. 26 Some of these new texts were
produced by earlier spirit-writing altars (including the Yuquan and
the scriptures revealed at the Hansan gong), and an important
number were produced at the Jueyuan tan itself. The Daozang jiyao
thus constitutes a culmination of a canonization process featuring a
wide selection of the scriptures revealed by gods such as Patriarch
L, Doumu, Wenchang, and Guandi. It is a particularly important
collection because it encapsulates the state of doctrinal production
by the turn of the 19th century, just before new developments would
take scripture production in new directions (on which more below).
Eschatological scriptures are numerous in the Daozang jiyao.
Besides texts that were already circulating during the 18th century
such as the Yuanshi tianzun shuo Zitong dijun benyuan jing and
the Wendi jiujie jing, adepts around Jiang Yupu at the Jueyuan tan
also revealed their own scriptures. To give but one example, the
Jiuhuang Doumu jiesha yansheng zhenjing
(True Scripture on Extending Life through Non-Killing [Preached
by] Doumu [Mother of] the Nine Emperors [of Ursa Major])
revealed by Doumu provides a graphic description of the imminent
annihilation of humanity caused by the accumulated butchering of

Discovery of Jiang Yuantings Daozang jiyao in Jiangnan: A Presentation of the

Daoist Canon of the Qing Dynasty, in Knan Dky no kenky ,
ed. Mugitani Kunio (Kyoto: Jinbun kagaku kenkyjo, 2007), 79110;
The Invention of a Quanzhen Canon: The Wondrous Fate of the Daozang
jiyao, in Quanzhen Daoists in Chinese Society and Culture, 15002010, ed. Liu
Xun and Vincent Goossaert (Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, 2013),
4477; Mori Yuria, Dz shy to Sh Yofu no Ryoso fuki shink
, Th shuky 98 (2001): 3352;
Identity and Lineage: The Taiyi jinhua zongzhi and the Spirit-writing Cult to
Patriarch L in Qing China, in Daoist Identity: Cosmology, Lineage, and
Ritual, 165184; Sh Yofu no Ryoso fuki shink to Zenshinky
, in Dky kenky no
saisentan , ed. Horiike Nobuo and Sunayama Minoru
(Tokyo: Taiga Shob, 2006), 82108.
26
The Daozang jiyao Project, initiated by Monica Esposito and now directed by
Lai Chi-tim, is compiling a comprehensive description and analysis of the canon.

Vincent Goossaert

236

animals. Doumu preaches that only a radical and immediate change

of attitude toward life can bring humans back from the brink, and
even calculates the most cost-efficient way to accumulate merits in
the little time available, and thus maximize the chances of avoiding
doom:
If one man practices this [non-killing] he can avoid disasters for
himself; if the whole of humanity practices this, it can avoid the end
of the kalpa. (20b)

[Such accumulation of sinful killing of animals] will not need to

continue for a hundred years, but within just a few decades, expect
the advent of the end of the kalpa, and you will soon find yourself
among those who will be annihilated. (23a)

There will be disasters such as fires and floods, wars and slaughter,
pests and epidemics and they will combine in one apocalypse. And yet,
I tell you, the arrival of the end of the kalpa, even though it is caused
by the accumulation [of sins], can be avoided. The kalpa will end
within a few decades, but in the meantime, the sinners who repent
will achieve peace and immunity. (23b)

[Killing living beings] causes disasters to befall the culprits on an even

larger scale, and the end of all mankind to arrive even sooner. (28a)

From 1840 onward, and even more during the Taiping war (1851
1864), the eschatological discourse takes a new turn and expands
quite spectacularly. New revelations starting in 1840 at a temple
near Chongqing (Sichuan) called Longn si explain that
the Jade Emperor has decided to annihilate humanity, which he
considers irredeemably sinful; only after pleas by Guandi (who
from that point on becomes a central figure in eschatological
discourse) is one last reprieve given, during which time he and
other gods will multiply spirit-writing revelations in order to save

Modern Daoist Eschatology

237

as many humans as possible.27 Wang Chien-chuan has traced the

origins and rapid diffusion of this discourse in the new context of
the 19 th century. From the early Republican period onward,
redemptive societies 28 produced and diffused unprecedented
amounts of eschatological scriptures (old and new), thus bringing
the eschatological tradition down to the present. Wang and other
historians have proposed to differentiate classical morality books
and scriptures from those revealed after 1840, often linked
to devotional traditions such as Xiantian dao (and its later
offshoots including the redemptive societies), more popular in
style and more apocalyptic in tone. The post-1840 texts frequently
mention dates when the apocalypse should occur and introduce
the Three Ages, sanqi theory, which was not the case in the
scriptures discussed above.29 Yet, if this period indeed represents a
turning point in the history of the production of scriptures and
eschatological ideas, it should be noted that texts produced then
were to an important extent rephrasing ideas already present in
Song-period Wenchang revelations and carried over and developed
by many 18th-century scriptures.

27

Takeuchi Fusaji, Shinmatsu Shisen no shky und , Gakushin

daigaku bungakubu kenky nenp 37 (1994): 5993;
Wang Chien-chuan, Taiwan Guandi dang Yuhuang chuanshuo de youlai
, in Hanren zongjiao, minjian xinyang yu yuyanshu
de tansuo: Wang Jianchuan zixuanji
(Taipei: Boyang, 2008), 412430; see also Yau Chi-on , Fuhua
yunei: Qingdai yilai Guandi shanshu ji qi xinyang de chuanbo
, The Journal of the Institute of Chinese Studies of
the Chinese University of Hong Kong 50 (2010):
219253, esp. 225228. The Longn si revelations are explicitly mentioned in
numerous later texts, yet, curiously, no extant original text seems to survive (only
later, revised versions).
28
Redemptive societies are religious movements that developed during the
Republican period, integrating pre-existing self-cultivation practices and doctrines
(often eschatological), but in a modern organizational form (mass training,
Church-like structures). See Vincent Goossaert and David A. Palmer, The Religious
Question in Modern China (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2011), chap. 4.
29
Among works discussing 20th-century spirit-writing groups and eschatological
ideas, see David K. Jordan and Daniel Overmyer, The Flying Phoenix: Aspects
of Chinese Sectarianism in Taiwan (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986)
and Paul R. Katz, When Valleys Turned Blood Red: The Ta-pa-ni Incident in
Colonial Taiwan (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2005).

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Vincent Goossaert

IV. Eschatology in the Qing Context

When compared to the Daoist Canon, the Daozang jiyao as a
product of accumulated spirit-written revelations of the 17th and
18th centuries features eschatological themes very prominently. The
table of contents includes the foundational Wenchang texts
discussed above, Benyuan jing and Jiujie baojing, and many of the
revelations produced by the Yu tan, Hansan gong, Jueyuan tan and
other altars. More than this, the highest-ranking officials who
participated in the compilation and edition of the Daozang jiyao
unreservedly associated themselves with these texts. Perhaps the
most striking example is Zhu Gui (17311807), who is listed
as having prepared the edition of the Jiujie baojing. Zhu Gui, a
member of the Jueyuan tan and lifelong devotee of Lzu and
Wenchang, was one of the highest-ranking officials of the time.
Having served as the preceptor of the future Emperor Jiaqing ,
who gave him unlimited respect, Zhu enjoyed a high-flying career
as provincial governor, then settled in Beijing after Jiaqing assumed
full power in 1799, and was showered with honors and privileges.
He was the driving force behind Wenchangs canonization in 1801.
In other words, arguably the most powerful official in the empire
edited and published a spirit-revealed scripture warning humans
that demons were about to exterminate them all. This is not the
kind of information we can find in standard history textbooks
about Qing China and its so-called Confucian elites.
Zhu Gui seems exceptional because of the historical stature of
the person, but he was absolutely not a unique case; many 18thand 19th-century officials combined a civil-service career and
perfectly Confucian-orthodox writings in this capacity together
with a rich and diverse private spiritual life where self-cultivation,
spirit-writing, and the cults of gods such Patriarch L, Wenchang,
and Guandi played a central role.30 These officials probably did not
30

See also the case of the Wanyan family in Liu Xun, Immortals and Patriarchs:
The Daoist World of a Manchu Official and His Family in Nineteenth Century
China, Asia Major, 3rd Series, 17.2 (2004): 161218; and Vincent Goossaert, Yu
Yue (18211906) explore lau-del. La culture religieuse des lites chinoises la
veille des rvolutions, in Miscellanea Asiatica, ed. Roberte Hamayon, Denise
Aigle, Isabelle Charleux, and Vincent Goossaert (Sankt Augustin: Monumenta
Serica, 2011), 623656.

Modern Daoist Eschatology

239

see a fundamental contradiction between the various aspects of their

lives, and yet their private religiosity remains in most cases invisible in
biographical sources heavily edited by disciples and heirs eager to erase
anything that might seem objectionable, or just not appropriate for the
specific genres of public writing that were selected for publication.
Their convictions regarding their own postmortem destinies and the
need to save ordinary sinful humans from a grim fate could not be
expressed in public pronouncements, and thus had to find outlets in
genres such as morality books and revealed scriptures. Yet, these texts
were placed under the authority of officially-sanctioned gods (especially
after the Jiaqing-period canonization of the spirit-writing gods:
Patriarch L, Wenchang, Xu Xun , Guandi) and thus constituted
a space of toleration and partial freedom crucial for expressing the
worldview of the upper gentry.
Such toleration may come as a surprise when one considers the
status of eschatological discourse at the time. Many strands of that
discourse were carried by popular devotional groups (usually called
sectarian in the scholarly literature) and exposed in great detail
in their baojuan scriptures.31 Because these groups were banned,
occasionally repressed, and associated with millenarian rebellions,
such discourse was banned and politically extremely sensitive.
When Zhu Gui edited the Jiujie baojing and included it in the
Daozang jiyao published in Beijing in 1806, the Qing state had just
put down, after ten years (17941804) of ruinous and devastating
war, a millenarian rebellion in the Sichuan-Shanxi-Hubei uplands.
The last thing one would expect in such conditions is high officials
publishing texts predicting the end of the worldyet they did.
This raises the issue of the acceptability of such eschatological
discourse. Arguably, it was not the mere fact that baojuan talked of
the endtimes that made them a target for repression, but rather
who might and in what terms legitimately discuss eschatological
themes. I thus propose to distinguish the eschatological discourse
31

Barend Ter Haar, The White Lotus Teachings in Chinese Religious History (Leiden:
Brill, 1992); Daniel L. Overmyer, Precious Volumes: An Introduction to Chinese
Sectarian Scriptures from the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (Cambridge:
Harvard University Asia Center, 1999); Liu Kwang-Ching and Richard Shek,
eds., Heterodoxy in Late Imperial China (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press,
2004).

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Vincent Goossaert

included in the scriptures collected in the Daozang jiyao from that

of the baojuan. Scholars who have paid attention to the issue have
dwelt on the resemblances and continuities between the eschatology
of the baojuan and that found in medieval Daoist texts (and
ignored the Daoist eschatological production contemporary with
the baojuan).32 While this approach is fully warranted and fruitful,
it is also crucial to realize that the Chinese eschatological tradition
is not monolithic and has taken different shapes, even during one
single period. The eschatology of the early and mid-Qing spiritwritten scriptures usually does not feature the Three Ages theory
central to the baojuan eschatology,33 but evokes a gradual and
reversible decline of humanity; even more crucially, it is not
messianicat least not in a strict sense. That is, when the end is
coming, no one (whether called Maitreya, Li Hong, the next
emperor, or something else) descends on earth to gather the elect
and guide them to a kingdom of peace and plenty. Rather, the role
of the messiah is played by a god (Wenchang, Zhenwu, Doumu, or
Lzu) who descends in the phoenix but is not incarnate. This is an
extremely significant difference, because (among other things) no
one can claim to be the one and only incarnation of the messiah,
since the messianic god is writing moral tracts all over the
country at the same time. Such a multiplication of messianic
charisma, indeed, a routinization,34 removes the most politically
objectionable aspect of apocalyptic eschatology, namely, the
possibility for someone to proclaim himself the messiah (and even
worse, new emperor). More generally, the kind of dynastic
messianism that is found in earlier Daoist texts is absent here; the
point is not to criticize the moral decline of the regime, but of
humanity in general.
32

Lee Fongmao , Jiujie yu dujie: Daojiao yu Mingmo minjian zongjiao de

moshi xingge , in Daojiao yu
minjian zongjiao yanjiu lunji , ed. Lai Chi-tim (Hong
Kong: Xuefeng wenhua shiye, 1999), 4072; Sze Tak Pui, Eschatology in MingQing Sectarian Precious Volumes (baojuan) and Its Daoist Elements (MA
thesis, Vancouver: University of British Columbia, 2003).
33
The Guanghui xiuxin baoming chaojie jing alludes to it; it should be noted that
the Three Ages discourse were prevalent in medieval Daoist texts, and is
therefore not a sure marker of sectarian influence.
34
I am grateful to David Ownby for raising the issue of routinization.

Modern Daoist Eschatology

241

I thus propose to define the eschatological discourse produced

and disseminated by the spirit-writing groups of the Qing, and
canonized in collections such as the Daozang jiyao, as modern elite
eschatology. Modern because, while it is clearly in continuation
with earlier texts, it also innovates on a number of key points
(notably spirit-writing replacing the messiah), and characterizes a
body of texts produced between the 12th century and the present.
Elite because it is produced and disseminated by members of the
gentry (including important numbers of upper gentry and active
officials), which does not preclude larger audiences but certainly
implies elite religiosity and values.
One marker of this elite religiosity is the central role of moral
self-cultivation as the main way to postpone the apocalypse. It is
not so much the so-called Confucian contents of the moral program
that is relevant here, since morality books have from the Song
onwards created a potent fusion of the Three Teachings moral
discourse. Rather, it is the focus on taking ones destiny in ones
own hands that forms the Daoist-Confucian basis for moral selfcultivation and soteriology (salvation through self-divinization).
That the authors argued that a new age of moral reform could
reverse the process of human decline, postpone the apocalypse, and
return humanity closer to the pristine conditions of antiquity
presumably made the discourse more acceptable, even though the
talk of hordes of demons unleashed onto the sinning masses still
colored these scriptures in a way that was not entirely palatable to
everyone.
A consequence of this approach is that no calculation about the
duration of the kalpa is made and no date is set for the apocalypse
(no mention of a renshen or jiazi year as the preordained
date for endtimes, for instance, as in medieval or baojuan
eschatologies); the moment when the apocalypse strikes depends,
up to the last minute, on what humans do and on the Heavenly
bureaucracys decision. The kalpa ends not by necessity (the
exhaustion of the old qi ) but by decree, itself based on due
process. Similarly, there is no preset number of humans who will be
saved and survive the kalpa. This is an eschatology that gives
humans much agency; it is alsoand this admittedly stretches the
categoryan eschatology of threat (the apocalypse might come if

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Vincent Goossaert

we do not do something about it) rather than certainty. However,

while the discourse in morality books on individual salvation tends
to be broadly optimistic (one can through moral self-cultivation
reap earthly benefits and then become a god), the discourse on the
collective fate of humanity is rather pessimistic, and increasingly
through the Qing period colored by anxietyto use a term that has
been fruitfully used to discuss medieval Daoism. To put it bluntly,
the members of the gentry engaging in spirit-writing are confident
they can save themselves, but much less confident that they can
save the population around them, and yet they feel it is their duty
to do so. At the same time, the texts they produce constantly hover
between the two, with the key term jie frequently meaning
collective disaster in one sentence and individual retribution in the
next; some texts are very explicit about all-encompassing
apocalypse while others are not. Such ambiguity is not incidental; it
is creative and useful to preachers and moral activists who can
adjust their discourse according to audience and context, build up
tension and attention by warning of the coming endtimes, and yet
dwell on issues of self-cultivation and moral order here and now.
Another feature of late imperial elite religiosity is that
demonology and ritual means of warding off demons play a much
less important role than in medieval texts. Demons are mentioned,
but, as they act on the orders of the heavenly bureaucracy, it does
not matter much whether one knows their names, or formulas to
repel them: the key thing is to convince the bureaucrats above to
call them back.35 This is clearly elite bureaucratic procedure-driven
religiosity at work. Even then, ritual means are not entirely absent,
as the Lzu quanshu includes a kalpa-saving spell (jiujie zhou
) and one revealed apocalyptic scripture included in the
Daozang jiyao is based on formulas taught by Vairocana to dispel
the various types of disaster-causing demons.36

35

The tension between plague-causing agents conceived as plague demons (yigui

) and plague official deities (wenshen ) is one instance of this shift; see
Paul R. Katz, Demon Hordes and Burning Boats: The Cult of Marshal Wen in
Late Imperial Chekiang (Albany: SUNY, 1995), 4950.
36
Yuanshi shangdi Piluzheye shuo dadong jiujie zunjing
, in Daozang jiyao.

Modern Daoist Eschatology

243

The rise of apocalyptic themes in spirit-written scriptures

cannot be explained solely by the social context. While in some
instances (such as the disastrous wars that formed the backdrop of
the revelation of the Yuhuang jing in 13th-century Sichuan), a major
disaster can be related to the production of eschatological
scriptures, in most cases within the 18th-century corpus discussed
above, any such explanation would be weak and unconvincing. It is
true that 19th-century disasters (culminating with the Taiping war)
were interpreted (even by some officials) within the context of an
eschatological discourse. Yamada Masaru in particular has
documented the rise of eschatological morality books (jiujie
shanshu ) in relation to actual disasters, beginning with a
revelation by Wenchang explaining disastrous flooding in 1801 as a
warning of the coming apocalypse (dajie).37 Yet, this discourse had
developed during the 18th century at a time when disasters were
seen as only local and hardly threatening to the Chinese world as a
whole. I propose that it is the internal dynamics of the spiritwriting groups that best accounts for doctrinal innovation and
rising concerns about the endtimes.

V. Conclusion: Is There an Elite Eeschatology?

This article has attempted to outline the continuities in the
eschatological discourse over the long term, and in particular, in its
modern elite form, from the Song period onward. The notion that
the world as we know it might come to an end and the large
majority of humanity would perish was alive all the while,
discussed in a large variety of genres (including anecdotes [biji ],
which discuss eschatological themes quite extensively and evidence
the circulation of various opinions) and most fully articulated in
revealed scriptures. To fully grasp its relevance, we need to maintain
some critical distance from this eschatological discourse as deployed
in revealed texts. Fieldwork-based studies show that groups can
37

Yamada Masaru , Sekai no hametsu to sono kysai: Shinmatsu no kyg

no zensho ni tsuite , Shih
30 (1998): 3241. I am very grateful to Shiga Ichiko for drawing my
attention to this article.

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Vincent Goossaert

produce, recite, and transmit strongly eschatological texts without

living in fear of the end of the world.38 Furthermore, the idea that
savior deities plead the highest gods to save humanity from
impending apocalypse was to some extent a trope that served to
introduce scriptures; while certain texts elaborated on the idea,
others did not, and all occurrences of this idea must not therefore
be taken as solid proof of actual anxiety about the endtimes.
Philip Clart39 has argued that the discourse of elite spirit-written
scriptures is not eschatological because it does not predict a specific
apocalypse and describe its horrific scenario; it merely uses the threat
of possible disaster to emphasize what is its own core concern:
maintaining or restoring social order. The key issue is order and
disorder, not the end of time. Clart even proposes that the scriptures
we have discussed constitute a counter-discourse to popular
eschatology. This argument has much merit; in many spirit-written
scriptures the end of the kalpa is indeed mentioned as a rather vague
possibility that seems to serve the rhetorical purpose of focusing
readers or listeners minds on the message of moral reform.
Yet, I would argue that in some texts such as those discussed
above, the threat of the apocalypse is real enough to warrant the
use of the category of eschatology. This, obviously, is a different
sort of eschatology from the discourse where the end is certain
here, as so often, it pays to adapt and expand Western concepts
rather than rule out their use in non-Western contexts. As we have
seen, Qing elite soteriology was non-messianic, non-millenarian, but
it had a definite apocalyptic element. Anxiety about terminal
decline comes in various metaphors in the spirit-written scriptures,
one of the most common being black vapors (heiqi ) produced
by human sins that fill up Heaven and Earth. Scenarios were
simpler than in other eschatological discourses, but the idea that
higher gods may at any given moment unleash billions of demons
on earth to kill most humans was taken very seriously. The reaction
of literati to actually apocalyptic events of the 19 th-century
(culminating in the Taiping war) showed that these were the terms

38

David Ownby, oral communication, Hong Kong, 14 December 2012.

Oral comments during the workshop on eschatology in Chinese religious history,
10 April 2014.

39

Modern Daoist Eschatology

245

in which they made sense of what they experienced. In other words,

while they served to build ideal-typical elite and popular
soteriologies (whether one qualifies the former as eschatological or
not), these discourses actually covered a continuum and overlapped
to a very significant extent. An important aspect of this overlap was
shared visions of the apocalypse and the brutal divine collective
punishment of humanity.

2014
Daoism: Religion, History and Society, No. 6 (2014), 219246